Chapter 137 (Patreon)

“No, no! That won’t work! You’ll never hit me like that!”

On the battlefield occupied by the Second Mizukage, Gengetsu Hōzuki stood openly while the Allied shinobi attacked him from every direction.

However, his figure was nothing more than a mirage.

Every kunai, shuriken, and ninjutsu passed harmlessly through his body.

“It’s useless… None of our attacks are hitting him!”

“Even ninjutsu passes straight through! The Second Mizukage is too powerful!”

“…”

Dozens of shinobi surrounded Gengetsu, breathing heavily after their repeated attacks.

Sweat covered their faces as they stared at him with growing unease.

Gengetsu, however, looked more exasperated than pleased.

“Everyone, please fall back. I’ll handle him.”

A gentle female voice suddenly came from above.

Everyone looked toward the sky.

A beautiful girl dressed in white floated in the air, her long lavender hair moving gently in the wind. Her blue-and-white patterned eyes remained fixed on Gengetsu.

“That’s Hinata Hyūga!”

“She fought beside Mihawk-sama when they defeated the Third Raikage!”

“Everyone, withdraw!”

One of the Konoha shinobi immediately recognized Hinata.

The other Allied shinobi might not have known her personally, but the mere fact that she could fly was enough to prove that she was no ordinary kunoichi.

After remembering how she had restrained the Third Raikage, no one questioned her strength.

The dozens of shinobi quickly retreated and cleared the battlefield for her.

Gengetsu ignored them and studied Hinata.

Her gentle features and calm demeanor made her look nothing like someone capable of defeating the Third Raikage.

“What has happened to the shinobi of this era?” he complained. “You’re sending a young girl to face me by herself?”

Hinata was not offended.

Instead, she gave him a small smile.

“Please don’t worry. I’ll seal you shortly.”

Gengetsu froze.

The tips of his mustache twitched before an amused smile spread across his face.

“Interesting! Then tell me, how do you intend to seal me?”

He tapped the Giant Clam beside him with one finger.

“The attacks from those shinobi couldn’t touch me. Unless you find and defeat this fellow, you won’t be able to hit my real body.”

Hinata’s smile remained unchanged.

“You mean the Giant Clam hidden behind you?”

Gengetsu’s eyes widened.

“Oh? You can see it? Those eyes of yours are certainly impressive!”

Hinata did not answer.

She adjusted her stance in midair and thrust her right palm downward.

“Eight Trigrams Vacuum Palm!”

BOOM!

A concentrated wave of blue chakra and compressed air erupted from her palm.

The attack tore through Gengetsu’s illusory body and struck the real Giant Clam concealed behind the mirage.

The surrounding earth shook violently.

A few seconds later, the Giant Clam vanished in a large cloud of white smoke, forcibly dispelled and sent back to wherever it had been summoned from.

With the clam gone, the mirage covering the battlefield disappeared.

Gengetsu’s real body was finally revealed.

Clap! Clap! Clap!

Gengetsu applauded with undisguised admiration.

“Incredible! You sent my Giant Clam back with a single strike. That technique was the Hyūga clan’s Vacuum Palm, wasn’t it?”

His gaze returned to Hinata’s unusual eyes.

“But those eyes of yours aren’t—”

Gengetsu’s expression abruptly changed.

“The control inside my body has activated,” he warned. “Be careful, young lady.”

Almost simultaneously, numerous colorful bubbles emerged from the ground beneath his feet.

Despite their fragile appearance, they shot toward Hinata at astonishing speed.

“Those are explosive water balloons!” Gengetsu called out. “Do not let them touch you!”

Hinata did not respond.

She slowly raised her right hand.

The space above her palm began to distort.

A small sphere of compressed gravity formed in her hand, causing the surrounding air to bend toward its center.

Hinata pushed her palm downward.

Whoosh!

The gravitational sphere flew toward the approaching water balloons.

The instant they came within range, an overwhelming attractive force erupted from its center.

The bubbles did not explode.

Instead, they were dragged toward the sphere and compressed inside its gravitational field one after another.

Within seconds, every explosive water balloon had been gathered into a single point.

Hinata curled her fingers.

The gravitational force abruptly reversed.

The compressed sphere transformed into a projectile of pure repulsion and shot toward Gengetsu like a beam of light.

BOOM!

It struck the Second Mizukage before he could evade.

All the explosive chakra contained within the water balloons erupted at once, releasing a dazzling orange-red light.

The desert shook violently.

A small mushroom cloud rose from the battlefield.

Watching from the distant rocky hill, Mihawk raised one eyebrow.

“So that’s what Hinata discovered last night.”

He understood the principle behind the technique immediately.

Hinata had created an independent gravitational core away from her body.

Instead of pulling a single target toward herself, she could position that core anywhere within the Tenseigan’s effective range and use it to gather incoming attacks.

Once everything had been compressed into one point, she reversed gravity into repulsion and fired the captured attacks back at her enemy.

At first glance, it resembled the Preta Path’s ability to absorb ninjutsu.

However, the principle was completely different.

Hinata had not absorbed the chakra into her own body.

She had merely captured the attacks with gravity, compressed them, and returned them using repulsion.

Unlike the Preta Path, she did not need to make physical contact with the ninjutsu.

As long as an attack entered her gravitational field, she could seize it from a distance.

Unless the opponent escaped through space–time ninjutsu or possessed enough raw power to break free immediately, avoiding the gravitational core after being caught would be nearly impossible.

Unfortunately, the technique had encountered an opponent capable of surviving its destructive power.

An Edo Tensei body possessed constantly replenishing chakra and could regenerate from almost any physical damage.

Hinata’s attack could destroy Gengetsu’s body, but it could not permanently kill the jutsu sustaining him.

When the dust gradually dispersed, Gengetsu’s shattered body appeared within the crater.

Large sections of his torso and limbs had been destroyed.

Countless particles of white dust were already gathering around the remaining pieces as the Edo Tensei began repairing him.

Hinata possessed neither Truth-Seeking Balls nor Yin–Yang Release.

Her gravity and repulsion could not erase the Edo Tensei’s regenerative ability.

However, she had never expected one attack to finish him.

Hinata opened her right hand toward the crater.

“Mihawk-kun told me that the more damage an Edo Tensei body receives, the longer it takes to regenerate.”

Her Tenseigan shone brightly.

“So I simply won’t give you time to recover.”

A blue-white halo formed around Hinata’s palm as she compressed her repulsive force into a single point.

BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!

Repulsive blasts shot toward the ground one after another.

Each strike carried devastating power, repeatedly bombarding Gengetsu’s body before it could finish regenerating.

Dust engulfed the battlefield.

Orange-red flashes continued erupting within the cloud as the desert shook beneath the relentless barrage.

Floating alone in the sky, Hinata became the center of everyone’s attention.

“Gulp…”

The Allied shinobi watching from a distance instinctively drew back and swallowed nervously.

Hinata possessed such a quiet and gentle demeanor that it was almost impossible to connect her with the devastation unfolding below.

The contrast was simply overwhelming.